James Allison says he won’t get carried away with Ferrari’s progress despite pushing Mercedes close in the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Sebastian Vettel was able to outqualify Nico Rosberg in Bahrain, the first time a Mercedes has been beaten in a dry qualifying session this season as Ferrari appeared more competitive over one lap. Both Vettel and team-mate Kimi Raikkonen were again a threat in the race but Raikkonen had to settle for second place behind Lewis Hamilton, with the defending champion winning by 3.3s.
While the gaps in qualifying and the race were smaller than in China, Allison says it would be dangerous for Ferrari to assume it will continue the trend at the next race in Barcelona.
“We’re very happy with the whole way the team is bedding down,” Allison told Sky Sports. “Engineers, drivers, the whole lot seems to be working reasonably well and we just need to keep building as the season goes.
“Yes if you just look at the stopwatch [the gap is closing] but the nature of these tracks changes, so it’s not straightforward just to say ‘Ooh it’s getting closer race on race, therefore it will get closer at the next one’ because the tracks are different. But certainly it’s going OK for us.”
And while Allison is keen to give little away as to Ferrari’s plans for upgrades in Spain, he does warn Mercedes it will face a tough challenge in Canada having seen both Hamilton and Rosberg suffered brake-by-wire failures in Bahrain.
“Everybody brings stuff for Europe. Everybody tries to bring stuff for every race and we’re no exception, so let’s see how the battle waxes and wanes as we do that.
“[Bahrain] is a tough track for braking but it’s not the toughest, Canada is another step on. They’re a good outfit, I’m sure that anything that went wrong with them [in Bahrain] they will fix, but they’ve got three races so bring it on.”
Click here for a look at the brake-by-wire system which caused Mercedes problems in Bahrain
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